The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 10, 2015
Filed:
Jan. 31, 2013
Fortinet, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Rajesh I. Balay, Cupertino, CA (US);
Girish Bhat, San Diego, CA (US);
Gregory Lockwood, Redwood City, CA (US);
Rama Krishnam Nagarajan, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Fortinet, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods, apparatus and data structures are provided for managing multicast IP flows. According to one embodiment, active multicast IP sessions are identified by a router. A data structure is maintained by the router and contains therein information regarding the multicast sessions, including a first pointer for each of the multicast sessions, at least one chain of one or more blocks of second pointers and one or more transmit control blocks (TCBs). Each first pointer points to a chain of one or more blocks of second pointers. Each second pointer corresponds to an outbound interface (OIF) participating in the multicast session and identifies a number of times packets associated with the multicast session are to be replicated. The TCBs have stored therein control information to process or route packets. Each second pointer points to a TCB that identifies an OIF of the router through which packets are to be transmitted.